Playing Through the Pain: Trust & RestIsampula

Transformation brings a newness that cannot be faked. It must be authentic.

When my good friend, the late, great Reggie White came up in his professional football career, he carried a new level of power that had yet to be seen in the league. His nickname was ‘the Minister of Defense’ because he not only quickly became one of the most legendary defensive players to ever touch the field, but he was also an ordained minister.

Deep down in my friend’s heart, he carried a supernatural transformation that showed up both spiritually and physically. In 1993, Reggie played his first season with the Green Bay Packers. Even though they had the same win-loss record in his first season as a cheesehead and their defense that had been ranked as 23rd out of 32 teams the year prior, they finished second in the league after having added Reggie to their lineup. The then Head Coach, Mike Holmgren, said that White was the reason for this shift: “Reggie has changed everything – the way we play, and the other team’s offensive scheme.” 

Too often we wrongly believe that if we are not in church or on a mission trip that we cannot bring about transformation wherever we are. My friend and mentor proved this to be false. Transformation in you produces transformation around you. 

We are carriers of the transforming power of Jesus Christ everywhere we go. 

David definitely illustrates this for us. If he had not delivered food to his brothers as his father, Jesse, had instructed, the Israelites might still be standing on their side of the battlefield frozen in fear because of the giant Goliath. If David had not believed in his own experiences with God, then he might have refused to walk out his destiny. 

What battlefield moment is waiting for you to walk out the transformation inside of you?

I love what Isaiah records for us in Isaiah 43:19, “See (God says), I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

Paul says, “For we know in part and we prophesy in part.” In other words, this happens when God is telling us how things WILL BE, yet these things have not been revealed to us, and we announce them anyway.  

Maybe you’re depressed and fearful, but “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) 

So instead of saying I am depressed and fearful, we respond to our depression & fear and say: “I HAVE A SOUND MIND.”

When things feel like you’re under attack, remind your hearts that God is the Minister of Defense. In advance of a victory that we know belongs to the Lord, I want to encourage you with the words of David that have encouraged me: “Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! For He has done marvelous things, His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory.”

Now then, LISTEN to God speak over you through the written words of David.